Saturday, July 2, 2011

Protective Styles are a way of life for me because....

Even though I only wore my hair out for a week, I had to cut out a few ssk's and tangles. And when I took my braids down almost 3 weeks ago, I also cut out a few ssk's and tangles so I really shouldn't have had to do that again so soon. And the thing is I braided my hair every night and never slept with it loose or let it shrink up! I use to let my braid out fros and twist out fros morph into anything it wanted to. So I had a stretched out fro on day one and by day 7 I would have a cute and defined shrunken fro. Then I had the nerve to get mad that my hair was tangled!

Now that I keep my hair stretched out all the time, not just 75% of the time like I was doing back then, I would think that wearing an occasional braid out or twist out would not cause that much harm especially since I take the necessary precautions to ensure that my hair does not shrink up. But that is the only thing about type 4 hair, well at least my type four hair, maybe yours is different: it tangles so badly! Sometimes it is frustrating that you can't wear a normal fro out just for a few days without having to worry about damaging your hair, or causing a setback.

That's why I tend to wear my hair out for one or two days only after wearing a protective style to get my fix, and then immediately put it back into a protective style the next day. By the time I have worn my protective style for 1-3 weeks, the pattern that it was in has had a chance to really lock into my hair and I will get a really defined look that I love. And keeping the amount of time that I wear my hair out limits the chance for my hair to knot and tangle in its loose state.

If you also suffer from really tangly, knot prone type four hair or any hair, I would suggest that you also limit the amount of time that you wear your hair out. You don't have to be as drastic as me and keep your hair put away for 2-3 weeks. If you want, you can wear a protective style for the week, and wear your hair out on the weekend. Then on Sunday redo another protective style to prevent your hair from knotting and tangling. From my experience, this has really been the only way for me to prevent tangles and damage to my hair and maybe this will work for you also.